Hinkley
We are pro-nuclear, but Hinkley C must be scrapped: George Monbiot, Mark Lynas and Chris Goodall. Overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue, the Hinkley project needs to be killed off and the money invested into other low-carbon technologies. Hinkley C bears all the distinguishing features of a white elephant: overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue. The delay that was announced recently should be the final straw. The government should kill the project. The greatest problem Hinkley C imposes is energy blight. As the project is delayed, the power it would otherwise have generated is likely to be supplied instead by fossil fuel plants. If it does indeed turn out to be unconstructable, the result is likely to be a panicked scramble back into gas and even, perhaps, coal. We urge the government to scrap this plant, and to use the money promised to its investors to accelerate the deployment of other low carbon technologies, both renewable and nuclear. We would like to see the government produce a comparative study of nuclear technologies, including the many proposed designs for small modular reactors, and make decisions according to viability and price, rather than following the agenda of the companies which have its ear.
Guardian 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Three leading environmentalists who broke ranks to give their support to a new generation of nuclear plants have now urged the government to scrap plans for Hinkley Point C. The call comes as George Osborne and Amber Rudd, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, head off to China, where they will discuss Beijing’s proposed investment in the new nuclear plant in Somerset.
Guardian 18th Sept 2015 read more »
A pressure group fighting proposals for huge pylons carrying high-voltage power lines from Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is calling on the Government to think again and bury them. Nailsea Against Pylons’ call follows National Grid’s announcement last week that it is to use £500 million of taxpayers’ money to remove unsightly pylons from four protected landscapes. An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Winterborne Abbas in Dorset and three National Parks – Peak District, New Forest and Snowdonia – will benefit.
Western Daily Press 18th Sept 2015 read more »
George Osborne heads a ministerial delegation to Beijing on Saturday in a sign the chancellor wants to deepen relations with China despite the slowdown in the Chinese economy. Mr Osborne’s week-long trip is intended to drum up Chinese investment in the UK, including in the development of nuclear power and the chancellor’s “Northern powerhouse” project. He has told ministerial colleagues that far from backing away from China after the deceleration of its economy over the summer, he wants to increase co-operation. Mr Osborne hopes his visit will help prepare the ground for Mr Xi’s visit, which is expected to be the occasion for a series of announcements of Chinese investment, including in the nuclear sector. China wants to play a bigger role in developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and is an investor in the troubled project to build a new station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
FT 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Nuclear Security/Dounreay
SECURITY at Dounreay is being stepped up again with four armoured vehicles expected to arrive before the end of the year. The new fleet of 4x4s is due to be delivered before Christmas for use by officers of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary ( CNC), the in-house police force. A spokesman yesterday confirmed the armoured vehicles have been ordered though declined to say how many or at what cost. He said: “There are a number of ballistically protected vehicles ordered for both Dounreay and Sellafield which are expected to arrive by the end of the year.
John O Groat Journal 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Radhealth
The Polar Bear Draft plan comment deadline is Saturday night. The US Fisheries and Wildlife Service needs to research and consider the chemical and radiological impacts that radioactive materials have on polar bears, both directly (health) and indirectly (climate-ice). These include radioactive iodine, (which also causes thyroid problems).
Mining Awareness 17th Sept 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Kirsty Gogan: Corbyn’s Energy manifesto, Protecting the Planet, sets out ambitious pledges to reform the energy markets, invest in decentralised energy supplies, and dramatically improve energy efficiency. Fair enough, but a valuable and useful opposition, as our democracy clearly needs, must provide challenge supported by the best available evidence. And sometimes, cross-party consensus is where the real strength lies. In the case of action on climate change, the strategy needs to be determined less by politics and more by robust analysis. Real world outcomes are more valuable for health and well being than idealistic rhetoric. With a radical agenda on climate and energy, Corbyn risks destabilising a hard-won cross-party consensus on how best to meet ambitious carbon reduction targets cost effectively and without jeopardising energy security. An inclusive and democratic leadership will mean listening well, and paying heed to smart and impartial people who have looked at these issues in detail, including the UK Government’s independent Committee on Climate Change. Any serious look at the scale of the challenge of decarbonising global energy, including by this distinguished group, has concluded that a massive and rapid expansion of all low carbon technologies, including nuclear energy, is needed. Falling short of the target to cut carbon as rapidly as possible, and at the lowest cost, threatens rising and irreversible acceleration in the temperature of the atmosphere and oceans.
Business Green 17th Sept 2015 read more »
Global Nuclear Capacity
Industry leaders last week debated how to bridge the gap between the World Nuclear Association’s vision of an extra 1000 GWe of new nuclear power capacity by 2050, and the practicalities of working within current political, regulatory and financial environments.
World Nuclear News 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Utilities
This week, Good Energy won a competition to provide renewable energy to tens of thousands of customers, all of whom signed up for a mass switch from the fossil-fuel heavy tariffs offered by the big six providers to the best green deal that could be offered by a smaller supplier. Campaign group 38 Degrees and the Big Deal, a consumer collective, negotiated with a series of power companies on behalf of the 100,000 households who signed up to the scheme. Good Energy was chosen because it offered a cheap, 100 per cent renewable electricity tariff with good customer service. Households now have until September 28 to make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the switch. “It is really exciting,” Ms Davenport said. “We haven’t seen a green collective switch and there has been such a great take-up – 100,000 people signing up to potentially be part of this deal within a two-week campaign, I think that’s amazing. People hear stories around climate change and energy security and they want to do something about it practically.”
Independent 19th Sept 2015 read more »
Sweden
Sweden has this week unveiled ambitious new plans to become one of the first countries in the world to become a fossil fuel free economy, committing to invest 4.5 billion kronor ($546m) in climate-related measures next year as part of its new decarbonisation. According to Bloomberg reports, the government announced on Wednesday that it will increase support for a raft of clean technologies, including solar, wind, energy storage, smart grids and clean transport.
Business Green 18th Sept 2015 read more »
North Korea
North Korea’s announcement that “normal operation” was again underway at its Yongbyon reactor complex sent a characteristic wave of anxiety through the world’s Pyongyang watchers. The country’s nuclear ambitions had, after all, been largely forgotten in what seemed like a lull in North Korea’s fractious relations with the wider world.
The Conversation 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Belgium
Belgium’s Constitutional Court has rejected Electrabel’s appeal against the legality of the nuclear tax contribution imposed by the government for 2013. The company maintains that the level of tax does not reflect deteriorating market conditions in which it operates.
World Nuclear News 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Canada
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has signed international arrangements with with India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) and the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) to cooperate and exchange nuclear regulatory information.
Energy Business News 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Trident
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been forced to back down over his fierce opposition to Britain’s nuclear deterrent. The veteran anti-war campaigner just this week said he did not want Labour to vote for the renwal of Trident in order to ‘fulfil our obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty’. However, Mr Corbyn has now accepted that Labour MPs will not unite against the government’s plan to renew Trident in a vote next year.
Daily Mail 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Having rebelled against previous Labour leaders more than 500 times, Mr Corbyn may struggle to impose discipline if, for example, he tries to oppose the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent. His plan to prevent the UK joining US-led bombing of jihadi militants in Syria will also expose deep splits in his own party.
FT 18th Sept 2015 read more »
FiTs
Community energy projects could be more difficult to develop as a result of the government’s changes to the Feed-in Tariff (FiT), the energy secretary has admitted. During Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) questions in the House of Commons on Thursday morning, Amber Rudd stated that the removal of pre-accreditation “could make it more difficult for community energy projects to deploy”. Rudd defended the move and said FiT pre-accreditation “had to be removed as a matter of urgency in order to safeguard spends under the scheme”.
Utility Week 17th Sept 2015 read more »
Renewables – Hydro
To see how closely water and energy are linked, you only have to look at the west coast of the US, where four years of severe drought have led to historically low levels in water reservoirs, forcing some hydroelectric plants to shut down or cut production. It’s little wonder, then, that new micro-hydropower technology that allows cities to generate electricity from the water running through their pipes is gaining worldwide attention.
Guardian 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Heat Pumps
Environmental groups have welcomed £2.3m in Government funding to encourage development of heat pumps. Heat pumps extract energy from water to supply low carbon heat efficiently. The new challenge fund – part of the part of the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme – will provide £375,000 to boost development of water pump business proposals, with a further £2m set aside for those with a fully developed investment grade business proposal but who cannot identify private investment. Speaking yesterday, energy minister Fergus Ewing said: “Heat is estimated to account for over half of Scotland’s total energy use and responsible for nearly half of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, so the imperative to take action is very clear. “We have already made significant progress and will continue to work toge ther with energy experts, businesses and communities to move towards our target of having have 40,000 homes connected to district heating by 2020.” Responding to Ewing, WWF Scotland Head of Policy, Dr Sam Gardner, said: “The need for heating makes up more than half of Scotland’s energy requirements. Therefore, we were pleased to hear the Minister commit to further development of an overall energy strategy for Scotland, which includes electricity, heating and demand reduction.
Holyrood 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News: Leonie Greene Solar Trade Association: It took some time to believe quite how appalling government proposals for solar were in the latest FIT consultation.
Microgen Scotland 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow and a member of Holyrood’s economy and energy committee, today expressed concern after ministers announced that a planned consultation on minimum energy efficiency standards in private homes has been deferred until after the 2016 election. The move was confirmed in a letter to the committee, with ministers blaming uncertainty caused by UK Government policies. Mr Harvie said: “It’s quite correct that the UK Government has taken a wrecking ball to many policies on energy efficiency and renewables over recent months. However energy efficiency remains a responsibility of the Scottish Government, which recently agreed to Green demands to make this a National Infrastructure Priority. “Ministers must urgently produce detail on how those good intentions will be turned into reality, to save energy, save money, and create jobs in Scotland’s economy.”
Scottish Green MSPs 18th Sept 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Despite government rhetoric that coal must go, experts say without policy changes this most carbon intensive fossil fuel is set to stay beyond 2030. Minister for energy and climate change Andrea Leadsom said this week that her department expected unabated (meaning without carbon capture) coal would make up just 1% of the country’s electricity generation by 2025. Referring to a Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) report from September last year, Leadsom said the decline would occur “as a result of deployment of low carbon alternatives, the cost of generation and the investment needed to meet new pollution abatement standards”.
Guardian 18th Sept 2015 read more »
